FILE - JULY 23: According to reports July 23, 2014, Facebook Inc. sales rose to $2.91 billion in the second quarter, compared to $1.8 billion last year, topping the average analyst estimate of $2.81 billion. NEW YORK, NY - MAY 18: The share price of newly debuted Facebook stock is seen at the Nasdaq stock market moments after it went public on May 18, 2012 in New York, United States. The social network site began trading after 11:30 a.m. with shares jumping 13% to $43 before quickly falling. On Thursday Facebook priced 421 million shares at $38 each. Facebook, a Menlo Park, California based company, will have a valuation exceeding $100 billion. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Continuing its skillful ride on the mobile computing wave, Facebook on Wednesday posted strong growth in revenue and profit for the second quarter.

The Menlo Park company, which said it had about 1.32 billion monthly users in June, reported that revenue was $2.91 billion, up 61 percent from $1.81 billion during the same period last year. Net income was $791 million, or 30 cents per share, compared to $333 million, or 13 cents per share, a year ago. The company's operating profit margin hit a record 48 percent in the second quarter, reflecting increased cost efficiencies.

Mobile devices accounted for nearly two-thirds of revenue, which mostly comes from ads shown on the Facebook website and apps. Facebook recently announced a network that allows advertisers to target Facebook users when they are using other apps, and it acquired LiveRail, a video ad service, in order to expand its ability to sell lucrative video ads that would run non-Facebook apps.

The company's stock, which closed up almost 3 percent on Wednesday, rose slightly in after-hours trading following the release of the results.

Analysts had expected Facebook to report revenue of $2.8 billion.

Wall Street had also projected that the company would post a profit of 32 cents per share, after excluding compensation-related expenses, according to consensus estimates collected by several services. On that basis, the company blew past the expectations with a profit of 42 cents per share, up from 19 cents a year earlier.

Facebook executives will discuss the results in a webcast. Investors will be looking for more details about the performance of nascent products like Instagram ads as well as insight into Facebook's plans for two major acquisitions announced this year: its $2 billion purchase of Oculus VR, a maker of virtual reality headsets, and its proposed purchase of WhatsApp, the leading text messaging app, for as much as $19 billion.

The Oculus VR deal closed this week, and Oculus is holding a conference with developers in Los Angeles in September to explore uses of its technology, which was originally designed for video gaming. The WhatsApp deal is facing scrutiny from European regulators and probably won't be completed until late in the year.

The company accounted for 5.8 percent of the world's estimated $120 billion in digital ad revenues in 2013, and it captured 17.77 percent of mobile ad spending, according to the research firm eMarketer.

"Facebook is the cheapest user acquisition platform," said Bob Buch, chief executive of SocialWire, a San Francisco company that helps retailers rapidly show different catalog items to Facebook users to figure out which ones lead to the most sales. "Google always looks great, but it's only for people who are already searching for something. If you're just out there fishing for new customers, Facebook is by far the most efficient channel."